TU STORM 2007 High School Autonomous Robotics Competition Introduction

TU STORM 2007 Robotics Competition ● Promote science and engineering ● Students experienced – calibrating sensors, and programming robot controllers for autonomous control of robots. – CAD Design – Animation ● High energy technological competition ● Tests students' creativity

TU STORM Programming Competition ● S mart T ask O riented R obotics M issions ● Every team is issued a TU designed and built robot mechanically capable of completing each mission ● These robots are controlled only by the autonomous programs written by the students

TU STORM Robot Description ● Controller ● Sensors ● Human interface ● Motion ● Arms & Tools ● Power requirements ● Rigid frame: 2" x 4" aluminum tubing

Controller ● IFI Mini Robot Controller. – Microchip 18F8520 PICmicro microcontroller ● rated at 10 MIPS. – The digital input sampling frequency is 100KHz – Analog input access time is 10mSec. – 16 digital/analog I/O pins, – 8 PWM outputs (2mSec - 17mSec).

Controller ● C/C++ with Microchip's MPLab compiler. – RS232 serial port for programming (115kb). – Memory space is 32K with – Variable space of 1800 bytes – 1024 bytes EE2.

Sensors ● One digital infrared reflective sensor – Can detect banner tape up to 12 feet away ● Two short range digital infrared sensor (B/W) – Can detect high contrast color at short distances. ● Two infrared distance sensors ● Two wheel encoders ● One digital compass

Human interface TU STORM robots have other inputs for human interface. ● There are three digital switches – used to set parameters for the autonomous program. ● A potentiometer designed for calibrating the sensors and trimming the R/C servos.

Arms & Tools ● Robot Arm ● Pan and Tilt

Motion ● Two dense foam wheels ● Powered by modified heavy duty R/C servos. ● The PWM outputs from the controller are used to drive the R/C servos. ● A plastic ball skid as a third point of contact to the terrain. The robot can turn with a zero degree radius.

Power requirements ● The main battery is a Ni-Cad 6 cell 7.2v RC battery that can be quickly charged in 15min. ● The second battery is a 9v used for the infrared sensor.

TU STORM 2007 Dates ● Competition Workshops and Kickoff Thursday October 22, 5:30 PM ● Trial Competition Saturday November 3, 2:00 PM ● Competition Day Saturday November 17, 12:30 PM ● KEH Atrium, University of Tulsa 441 S. Gary, Tulsa, OK

TU STORM 2007 Staff ● Dr. J. C. Diaz, Professor of Computer Science ● Kyle Johnson, Computer Science, M.S. Student ● Nick Malone, Computer Science, M.S. Student ● Oly Mistry, Computer Science, M.S. Student ● John Porter, Computer Science, M.S. Student ● Ian Zedalis, Computer Science, M.S. Student

TU STORM 2007 Missions ● The 2007 competition will showcase five different missions. – Three missions will involve programming the TU STORM robots. – One mission will involve completing the CAD design in Inventor of a robot for a FIRST type of competition. – Another mission will involve completing an animation in 3ds Max. ● The specifics of each mission will be announced at the end of the kick-off

TU STORM 2007 Kick-off Workshops ● Programming the Robot Controllers – using previous missions for review – programming details of new tools and sensors ● CAD design using Inventor – use FIRST components to make a simple design ● Animation workshop using 3ds Max